CB360 Composite National Rankings #8 (4/4/18)

The first April update to CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings (CNR) Top–50 – tabulated after games played on April 4 – features Florida firmly remaining in the top position, followed by Stanford, Texas Tech and Ole Miss closely bunched from #2-#4. The balance of the current top-10 includes: Arkansas, Florida State, Oregon State, Clemson, top-10 newcomer East Carolina and Auburn.

During the turbulent 2018 season, East Carolina has become the 18th different team to sit among the CB360 Composite top-10 at some point this season, with those teams including the current top-10 along with TCU (now not even in the top-50), North Carolina, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and North Carolina State.

(Note – plenty of notes and breakdown lists included on this release page, including links to the 20 elements currently in the CNR formula; scroll down … )

The CNR now features 20 different elements in the formula, reflecting the use of more computerized ratings that in some cases results in certain teams being slotted lower than their standing within the human polls.

Clemson (#11 a week ago) is back in the top-10, while two teams have slipped outside the current CNR top-10: [11] NC State and [13] Kentucky.

• Top-10/Top-16:– The SEC accounts for four of the CNR current top-10, followed by two teams each from the Pac-12 and ACC, plus the Big 12’s Texas Tech and the AAC’s East Carolina. Expanding out to the current top-16 (i.e. forecasted NCAA Regional top seeds/hosts), the breakdown includes: 6 SEC, 3 ACC, 2 Pac-12, 1 Big 12, 1 Conference USA, 1 American Athletic Conf., 1 Big Ten and 1 Sun Belt.

• Coming & Going– Five teams have entered/returned to the CNR Top–50: [36] Dallas Baptist, [39] Mercer, [41] FGCU, [44] Nevada and [48] Arizona … while TCU, UCF, Northeastern, Indiana State and Baylor all have slipped outside the Top–50 in the current update … TCU (preseason #5) and UCF (initial #32) had been in the CNR Top–50 all season, prior to this week’s update … one week earlier, UVa (preseason #16) and South Alabama (initial #22) had fallen out of the CNR Top–50.

• Top-10 Regulars – Only three teams have been in the CNR Top–10 all season: Florida (1-2-3-4-8-7-1-1), Texas Tech (3-3-2-1-1-6-4-3) and Oregon State (2-1-1-2-2-1-5-7) … with Texas Tech now being the only team 6th or higher all season in the CB360 Composite Rankings.

• Quick Climbers – Clemson was #18 in the preseason CNR but has climbed as high as #4 (now #8) … Ole Miss similarly climbed from #20 to its current #4 (#2 a couple weeks ago) while Auburn’s strong start has boosted the Tigers from #36 in the preseason CNR to a top-10 position for each of the past five weeks (now #10). NC State opened the season at #24 in the CNR but has spent the past three weeks at #10 or #11. And #9 East Carolina is another top-10 newcomer, after not even being in the CB360 preseason top-50.

• That’s Why They Play The Games – 21 of the teams in the current CNR Top–50 were not in the preseason Top–50, most notably current #9 East Carolina along with [12] Georgia, [18] Missouri and [20] Wichita State. There are nine other current top-40 teams that were not among the CNR preseason Top–50: [28] Tennessee Tech, [30] Illinois, [31] Stetson, [32] Florida Atlantic, [33] UNLV, [35] South Florida, [37] Troy, [38] Creighton and [39] Mercer … eight other teams currently in the 41-50 range likewise were not CNR preseason Top–50 squads: [41] FGCU, [42] Louisiana Tech, [43] Charleston, [44] Nevada, [45] Alabama, [46] Oregon, [47] Ohio State and [49] Minnesota.

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the various RPI-type ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers only are used early in the season (SOS are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix). For the NCAA field projections, teams are awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.

The polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS; and preseason conference coaches polls) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 2.0 (SOS & conf. poll) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 38.0, or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).
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